Datacenters, factories, research facilities, and other facilities which contain electronic devices provide electrical power to those devices through a power infrastructure. The infrastructure receives power from a utility grid, or one or more local power sources, or a combination thereof. The power may be generated by solar panels, wind turbines, hydroelectric turbines, geothermal sources, nuclear reactions, fuel cells, diesel engines, or other means, alone or in combination. One or more main power sources may be supplemented by batteries, such as batteries in battery-powered uninterruptible power supplies. Power is also distributed to the electronic devices in the facility using other components, such as switches, breakers, distribution units, power supply units, and connecting lines (e.g., wires, buses, rails).
Each component of a power infrastructure has characteristics such as a maximum power capacity, and a reaction time in the event of a power surge or a power interruption. Exceeding the power capacity of a given component can damage that component and other components, and may also damage the electronic devices. In severe cases, facility personnel may be at risk. Failure to provide power from an alternate source when power is interrupted can cause loss of digital data in devices which contain volatile memory. Some examples of volatile memory include processor registers, processor caches, and random access memory commonly used by application or operating system software.